The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Friday, June 7, 2013

The Emma Lazarus House -- No. 18 West 10th Street

In 1854 the Wall Street banking firm of Winslow, Lanier
& Co. had made millionaires of its principals.The senior
member of the firm was James Winslow, whose wife, Margaret, was the daughter of
partner James F. D. Lanier.

The West 10th Street block between Fifth and
Sixth Avenues was, at the time, becoming more and more fashionable as the
mansions of New York’s wealthiest citizens crept northward along Fifth
Avenue.Impressive residences replaced
the earlier modest Federal style homes as the affluent Fifth Avenue neighborhood
spilled onto the side streets.

That year a pair of grand brick town house was begun at Nos.
14 and 16.Completed a year later, No.
16 was purchased by Lanier.As the
Lanier family moved in, a new home was begun next door at No. 18.It would become the residence of the
Winslows.

The Winslow mansion was completed in 1856, an exceptionally
handsome Italianate-style residence that rose four floors above an English
basement.The architect distinguished
the structure with a basement and parlor level base of brownstone that
supported the brick upper stories.

The most striking feature was the three openings of the
parlor level.Two floor-to-ceiling
windows shared identical proportions
with the entranceway—creating an unusual symmetry and appeal.Rather surprisingly, instead of the expected
Italianate scrolled brackets below the cornice, the architect reverted to the
more outdated dentiled cornice and fascia found on Greek Revival homes.

The parlor level featured windows that matched the proportions of the entrance.

Nearly a century and a half later the “AIA Guide to New York
City” would dub the mansion “serene.”

The Winslows lived in the house for only three years.In 1859 it was purchased by Dr. George H.
Humphreys and his wife May.As had been
the case with the Winslows, the deed was put in the wife’s name; a common
practice to ensure the financial stability of the widow should the
income-earner die.

Although the Humphreys held on to the property until 1880,
it appears they rented it for at least one year.In 1879 George and Harriet Hammond were
living here when their son was born in the house on November 6.

The following year the Humphreys sold the house to John E.
Devlin.The importer was president of John
E. Devlin & Co. and a director of the Houston, West Street and Pavonia
Ferry Company; and of the Guardian Fire Insurance Company.Devlin sold the house in the fashionable neighborhood just three years later, in 1883, to wealthy sugar merchant Moses
Lazarus, a member of the firm Johnson & Lazarus.

Lazarus had retired in 1865 with what The New York Times
deemed “a very large fortune.”Now 67
years old, his health was not good.

Lazarus’ daughter, Emma who was already established as a
poet, was no doubt pleased with the location.The block had filled with
artists.Two doors away lived painter
John La Farge, and at No. 51 was the renowned Tenth Street Studio Building
where artists like Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer and William Merritt Chase
worked.

The treatment of the cornice, while handsome, was unexpectedly outdated.

Emma sailed for Europe just weeks after the family moved
in.At the time Richard Morris Hunt’s
pedestal for the Statue of Liberty was already half completed and in Paris the
statue was ready to ship.In order to erect it, all that was needed now was the raising of the necessary money.

In May, while Emma was still abroad, J. Carroll Beckwith and
William Merritt Chase, both instructors at the Art Students League, agreed to
organize a fund-raising art exhibition for the statue.In conjunction, writer Constance Cary
Harrison asked two poets—one of them Emma Lazarus—to pen short verses for its
opening.

Harrison would later recall “I begged Miss Lazarus to give
me some verses appropriate to the occasion.She was at first inclined to rebel against writing anything ‘To order’
as it were.”Nevertheless, she
completed “The New Colossus,” a sonnet to “Liberty Enlightening the World” in
time for the exhibition’s opening on December 3, 1883.After that night, Emma Lazarus’s stirring poem
was largely forgotten.

On March 9, 1885 Moses Lazarus died in the house on West 10th
Street from “a complication of diseases,” according to The Times.The esteemed Jewish businessman had obtained
memberships in some of the most exclusive clubs in town; a highly unusual
achievement at the time.

That year Emma set off on her second visit to Europe.When she returned to New York in September
1887 she was seriously ill.On November
20 The Sun reported “Miss Emma Lazarus, the well-known poet, translator, and
general writer for the magazines, died yesterday at 18 West Tenth street, in
this city, which was the home of her parents who are both dead.”

Emma Lazarus was 36-years old.Although newspapers reported that she “had
been ill for about a year, though death was due to a recent development of congestion
of the lungs,” it is now believed she died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The funeral took place in the house the following morning.

The Sun noted “Miss Lazarus was one of the leading woman
writers of the age, a great and strong writer, and despite the fact that death
came to her just as she had reached her prime, she had gained a place and made
a mark in literature far above the achievements of many eminent lives well
rounded by age.”

Ironically, Lazarus’s longest-lasting achievement would be
her overlooked sonnet “The New Colossus.”When the Statue of Liberty was opened the year after her death, the poem
played no part in the ceremony.Not
until 1903 when the text was mounted in bronze on the pedestal would the poem
become eternally linked with the monument.

The statue, intended as an embodiment of personal freedom
and democracy, was forever transformed by Emma Lazarus’s poem to a symbol of
immigration and welcome.

The Lazarus family sold the house in May 1889 to stock
broker Henry B. Livingston, a member of one of New York’s oldest and most respected
families.Livingston was a partner in the firm of Lee,
Livingston & Co., a member of the New York Stock Exchange.Like Moses Lazarus, he was a member of the
Knickerbocker and Union Clubs.

The Livingston house was the scene of expected social
entertainments.On December 7, 1895 The
New York Times reported that “Among the social incidents to-day will be [a
reception by] Mrs. Henry R. Livingston, 18 West Tenth Street.”

That event was a tea given for Angelica Livingston who was
making her debut and was it was deemed by the newspaper to be one “of the largest” of
the season.

In 1900 the Livingstons leased the house to banker Edwin M.
Post, a member of the firm Thomas & Post.Born in Cincinnati, the wealthy financier was also President and
director of the Express Coal Line and Georgia Car Co.; vice-president and
director of the Southern Iron Car Line; and secretary-treasurer and director of the
Manhattan Car Trust Co.; among other positions.

Post was in the house only a year and in 1901 it was rented
by Mrs. Charles Lea.The widowed Mrs.
Lea used the mansion not only for meetings of her favorite social group, the
Junior Thursday Evening Club; but for debutante events for daughter Marjorie
that year.

On January 11 Angelica Schuyler Church gave a luncheon “of
twelve covers” in Marjorie’s honor.It
was quickly followed by two coming-out receptions in the 10th Street
house, the second being held on January 25.

On March 21 the Junior Thursday Evening Club had a symposium
in the house “where several members of the Comedy Club gave a little play,”
reported The New York Times the following day.

Mrs. Lea and her daughter moved on when, in August of that
year, Henry B. Livingston sold the house to John Barry Ryan and his wife, Nina.Fortune was the son of the immensely wealthy
Thomas Fortune Ryan, a prominent financier.

John Ryan had grown up in the family mansion at the northwest
corner of Fifth Avenue and 12th Street.His
mother, the former Ida M. Barry of Baltimore, died on October 17, 1917 and,
much to the surprise and shock of the family, his father married Mrs. Cornelius
C. Cuyler “a prominent society woman of New York,” according to The Times, just
twelve days later.

The newspaper said “John Barry Ryan, who lives at 18 West
Tenth Street, would make no comment on his father’s marriage.”It added “As far as could be learned last
night, none of their families or friends even knew that they contemplated
marriage.”

The Ryans would rear four sons and a daughter in the house;
not all of whom would bring welcomed publicity to the family.John Barry Ryan’s personal fortune was
greatly increased upon the death of his father on November 23, 1928.Thomas Fortune Ryan left an estate of over
$200 million, about one-fifth of which went to John.

That same year daughter Adele met nightclub entertainer Robert
Johnston and his wife in Cape Antibes, France.There was an immediate attraction and when Johnstons traveled to London
the following winter, Adele decided to visit her sister there.Johnston was entertaining at the Night Life
Club, of which the Prince of Wales was a member.

Adele visited the Johnstons during the day at their Pall
Mall house and would come to the club in the evenings.The constant attention got on the nerves of
the entertainer’s wife who complained that Adele wrote frequently to her
husband and “willfully” tried to break up their marriage by sending him gifts.

When the Johnstons returned to the their New York home
nearby at No. 41 West 11th Street, Adele continued her pursuit of
Johnson and “induced Mr. Johnston to accompany her on trips to Boston and on
Oct. 3 [1929] persuaded him to escort her to the Park Chambers Hotel…and to
register with her as ‘Robert Johnston and wife,’” as reported in The New York
Times.

Johnston left his wife and moved into the house next door to
the Ryans, at No. 16 West 10th.The family’s name was scandalously in the headlines when Muriel Johnston
filed a $500,000 suit “for the loss of her husband’s affections.”

In June that same year, Adele’s brother, Thomas Fortune Ryan
2nd, was arrested in France as he prepared to sail to New York.He was charged with issuing checks for $2,600
without having the funds to back them.Then he upset the family further by marrying
the divorcee, Mrs. Margaret Moorehead Rea in Sheridan, Wyoming.The marriage was kept generally quiet, but
young Ryan displayed an uncanny ability to appear in the newspapers.

In March 1930 he drove his automobile into a truck,
resulting in a slight skull fracture.Seven months later, in October he obtained a divorce “on the ground of
desertion.” On June 27, 1931 the 32-year
old was in love again and secretly married the 23-year old divorcee Mrs. Mayme
Cook Masters.

John Barry Ryan had had his fill.On August 12 The New York Times reported that
“News of the ceremony leaked out and rumors had been current since that Ryan’s
parents planned to have the marriage annulled.”

The newspaper said on August 11 “Forced to choose…between
his father’s millions and his bride of six weeks, Thomas Fortune Ryan 2d today
declared that he had refused to give up his wife and therefore had been
disinherited by his father, John Barry Ryan of New York.”

In the meantime, perhaps to ensure the quality of the block
around his residence, John Barry Ryan purchased the three adjoining houses at
Nos. 18, 20 and 22 that year.

Before long it would be John Barry Ryan rather than his
children who were bringing unwanted publicity to West 10th Street.The Ryans left the house in 1930,
apparently in an effort to evade warrant servers and collection agents.

In 1932 Ryan was accused of “hiding or evading service of a
suit in the Plaza Hotel” and by April 1933 his property was being seized to
satisfy judgments against him.

Amazingly, the man who had inherited millions was now
skirting servers.Two of his automobiles
had been seized and on April 23 The Times reported that “representatives of
Milton Eisenberg, attorney for W. Rossiter Redmond, who was appointed receiver
for Mr. Ryan’s property on Thursday, failed in their second attempt to station
custodians in the Ryan home at 18 West Tenth Street here, where there are
paintings and objects of art valued at about $1,000,000.”

Indeed Ryan had filled the house (which was sitting
unoccupied and guarded by the Holmes Electric Protective Company) with an
impressive collection, including busts by Houdon.His financial problems plagued him for years
to come.The Government filed an income
tax lien against him for $210,916.74 in 1937 and another in 1938.

John Barry Ryan died in 1942 and three years later Nina sold
the house.In reporting the sales The New
York Times said “This is one of the picturesque old brick dwellings for which
that neighborhood long was known, and is one of the few remaining in its
original appearance, without remodeling.It dates back about a century.”The newspaper noted “It was acquired by the Ryan family in 1901 and
occupied as their home until 1930, but has been vacant since then.”

The amazingly-unaltered house was purchased by attorney Charles
Abrams and his wife, artist Ruth Abrams.The visionary urban planner and housing expert created the New York
Housing Authority and was one of the first to use the expression “Socialism for
the rich and capitalism for the poor.”

At some point the carved moldings enframing the upper story
windows were shaved flat; but no other significant changes were made to the
house. While Charles worked on housing
projects, Ruth pursued her artistic career.She was Art Director at the Research Association of The New School
between 1965 and 1966.

Abrams died of cancer
in the house in 1970.Ruth lived on in
the house until her death in March 1986, after which a New York Times critic
called her “a woman unfairly neglected in a macho era.”

In 1996 the basement level was converted to a separate
apartment; however today the upper floors remain a single-family house.The 28-foot wide residence is an elegant
remnant of old West 10th Street, and the place where one of America’s
most moving poems was penned.

No. 16 is the James Winslow house mentioned in the article, and also the house where Robert Johnston lived when he was having his scandalous dalliance with Ryan's daughter. It has been altered, but certainly has a past worth noting. I'll put that one on my list.

It's an apartment house upstairs with a psychoanalysis school on the lower levels. There are several rent control tenants that have been there since the eighties and some more recent tenants. It is not in great shape.

The balustrade around the front area and across the parlour floor is a recent introduction, and being of cast stone has always looked to me very odd and ungraceful, and to my eyes at least quite unhistorical.